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how many semiconductor chips are in the starlink receiver?
Gemini:
Beamformers: The antenna system uses "beamformers" to direct and receive signals. In older models (Rev3), there were reportedly 16. A newer revision (Rev4) features only six "next-gen Shiraz digital beamformers".
Controllers and...
A timeline:
5/29: "Trump bans sales of chip design software to China"
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/05/trump-bans-sales-of-chip-design-software-to-china/
5/30: "The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for...
It wasn't always obvious that building advanced fabs (7nm and below, EUV fabs) would work in the USA. Morris Chang himself was a skeptic.
Semiwiki contributor Scotten Jones wrote this in 2021:
https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-manufacturers/tsmc/303594-tsmc-arizona-fab-cost-revisited/
Looks...
I was just reading this analysis of capital heavy to capital light investment strategy at a PE firm. They love taking heavy capital from firms, turning them into Red Lobster. Followed by bankruptcy. And that theme is so dominant in some circles. It is at the heart of the problem the USA is...
I found these substack articles interesting as well.
Copy Exact! is what holds Intel back while "dual-wielding" ie Continuous Improvement is what enables TSMC to win.
Exactly as Edwards Deming predicted long ago. Point 9: “Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design...
I suspect the way you get those reticle sized die to yield is picking a particular golden path through TSMC massive group of fabs. This is a competitive advantage that cannot be duplicated elsewhere, because it depends on having a massive fab network which only TSMC has.
Well...Coherent is the other US SiC crystal wafer maker and the stock doesn't look too shabby (COHR). Coherent is the new name of (indeed oddly named) II-VI Inc.
Wolfspeed holds a 60% share of the global SiC wafer market, while Coherent's share is around 15%.
So still largely a US dominated...
The thing that I like about semi is the mix of backgrounds. Most fabs are like the United Nations; you can literally work shoulder to shoulder with someone from Uzbekistan, or Moldova, or Malaysia, or you name it. Philippines. China and India, obviously.
Education varies by the function...
Yes, uncertainty is reduced. Trump policy on China is rather unclear. Super high tariffs one minute, dramatically reduced the next. This is the first anti-China policy other than the tariffs. I don't think anyone thought Trump to be pro-China, but, other than tarriffs, this is the first or...
A lot of good points above. I hadn't thought about how someone like Garrett Ainsworth looks at semiconductors as being "how to get a job at Nvidia, Broadcom, or TSMC". There is so much more to the industry. Many supplier jobs, which are not second-class jobs (Applied Materials I hear is...
I found this NYT interview, a serious news interview with a former OpenAI employee, interesting: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/opinion/artifical-intelligence-2027.html
"AI 2027" is a book making some predictions such as:
"Kokotajlo: And then they kill all the people, all the humans...
So many people mentioned Chip War I bought the audiobook. I've listened to the first few chapters. It's a solid history of semiconductors type of book so far.
@Daniel you should do an audiobook of Fabless. The only way I make progress on books these days is listening.
There are reasons to...
Li Yuan writes thoughtfully about China issues for the NYT. Her column is out this week, proposing there are really 2 Chinas (sort of like a tech China and an industrial China).
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/business/china-economy-us-trade-war.html
This article about Apple makes me think...
He has a different perspective than most Wall Street analysts. I like that.
Biggest take aways:
Slide 19: 23:16 China Spend Now Slowing But Still 3x Market Justifiable Levels
Same slide: China Share of WW CapEx: 42% in 2024
Slide 16: 18:05 Monthly Total IC Unit Shipments (showing a...
Positive news for Samsung 2nm yields, design wins, and Exynos 2600 being manufacturable.
"The Exynos 2400 features an Xclipse 940 GPU, built on AMD RDNA™ 3 architecture to make gaming more immersive at every turn. Hardware-accelerated ray tracing brings every level to light, with realistic...
Exynos 2600 is quickly becoming a reality for the Galaxy S26 series
Samsung's efforts to being the Exynos 2600 back into play seem to be working out.
Adnan Farooqui
Despite earlier rumors that the Galaxy S26 series may also go Snapdragon only, recent reports have suggested that things are...
[News] Samsung Reportedly Nears 2nm Win with First Qualcomm Phone AP Deal in 3 Years
2025-04-30
While Samsung has reportedly been wrestling with 3nm yield issues and the lack of orders from major clients, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. According to Sedaily, the company is now in...
Of all the trade deals brewing at the moment, the one most important to Intel is US-TW. And this trade deal will certainly be tough on TSMC. Until we know details, the uncertainty will remain.
If the TW-US tariff remain at 10%, and the operating cost differential is 10% for apples-apples...
A good summary of the conventional criticisms of Intel.
You need semiwiki to explore the other side, the opportunities:
-Vertical integration is growing in many industries. Intel represents “old is new again”.
-Intel graphics business has always been misunderstood. They own integrated...
I think the biggest thing it does is establish that Taiwan is sovereign, independent of the US and red China. China and the US will both hate this law. So good for Taiwan.
N-1 creates a dilemma for Nvidia, Apple, AMD, all the N-node users of TSMC. They can be N or they can manufacture in the...
